


Said all I need is

by LibraLibrary



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Blood and Injury, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, OT3, Post-Hellbent, and mysterys kids, arthur got hurt and lewis is remorseful, like a few hours after, theyre all three in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 19:15:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16393562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraLibrary/pseuds/LibraLibrary
Summary: God, Lewis hadn’t even noticed it at first, but now he couldn’t tear his gaze from the empty space where his last spot of contact as a living, breathing human used to be.Post-Hellbent. Arthur didn't die, but god did he come close, and now the others are left waiting.





	Said all I need is

**Author's Note:**

> oh my god it took me forever to finally finish something in response to hellbent ive got like THREE OTHER DOCS WITH ABANDONED STORIES DJFHSKJFFK
> 
> i might finish the prequels to this one bc they explain what all happened to arthur to leave him in a hospital and how mystery finally cleared things up for the others

Against the brilliant and sterile white of the pillow underneath his messy blonde hair, it was so much easier to see just how  _ pale  _ Arthur was, which in turn made the sickly grey circles under his tightly shut eyes even darker. Even worse, the way the thin sheet clung to his softly shuddering frame, it was impossible to miss how thin he was, how absolutely tiny, how  _ frail _ he seemed. Laid out on a hospital bed, tucked away in a corner and hooked up to so much equipment, he looked…

 

Lewis tried to banish the thought with a shake of his incorporeal head, but it lingered like the afterimage of a flash bulb. 

 

Arthur looked like he was  _ dying.  _

 

Lewis flinched at the rough, humorless “heh” from his left, and glanced down at Vivi as she rubbed Arthur’s right hand, careful to avoid disturbing the IV lines tucked under paper skin, like a prayer stone. “You think this looks bad,” she murmured, reaching up to swipe at a few stray tears darting down her cheek, “but he’s been worse. You should’ve seen him...should’ve seen what happened after the cave.”

 

Lewis couldn’t keep the black pits of his eyes from drifting across Arthur’s shallowly twitching chest to his left shoulder. The blanket dropped immediately at his side, the soft cotton barely concealing what he now knew to be a cold steel dock embedded in scarred and tender flesh. The metal arm that hooked into the implant was discarded on a nearby counter, occasionally sparking uselessly, dented and crumpled and shredded in the fall. 

 

God, Lewis hadn’t even noticed it at first, but now he couldn’t tear his gaze from the empty space where his last spot of contact as a living, breathing human used to be. 

 

“He stopped breathing a few times on the table,” Vivi murmured, and Lewis felt his dim, cracked anchor jolt as she continued.

 

“Died several times,” she whispered in a daze. “Almost lost him too.”

 

“Vivi…”

 

She choked out a bitter laugh in spite of herself. “And the worst part? I wasn’t so scared of him dying. I was…”

 

She carefully sat Arthur’s cool hand back down on the soft sheets, then removed her glasses, wiping her eyes and rubbing her temple. “...I was scared I’d  _ forget him too.” _

 

Lewis dropped to his knees as Vivi choked out a sob, and she let him pull her into his arms. She pressed her wet face into his broad chest and heaved, her heartbroken wails periodically drowning out his frantic, shuddering  _ I’m sorry Vivi I’m so sorry I didn’t know I didn’t think I made a mistake I’m so sorry I didn’t want this I made a  _ **_mistake_ ** -

 

It hadn’t taken too long for Vivi to fall into an exhausted, fitful sleep, and Lewis c a r e f u l l y lifted her up, crossing the room without a single step to gently lay her down on the visitors couch. Mystery emerged from underneath, hopping up to curl up against his mistress’s side and whining as Lewis bent down to scratch him behind his ears. 

 

“She’s right. He coded several times the first few days. If we had gotten him to the hospital any later than we did…”

 

The disguised kitsune trailed off with a mournful whimper, and Lewis could feel his heart breaking. “It wasn’t your fault. If you hadn’t done it-“

 

Mystery looked him in the eye, his too-human voice soft, but steady and packed with emotion. “But it wasn’t his fault either, Lewis.”

 

Black emptiness and magenta rings clouded over with shimmery pink tears, and Lewis nodded. “Yeah,” he choked out, “I know that now.”

 

~*~

 

Vivi and Mystery were still curled up fitfully on the couch, and every gentle sound from them made Lewis jolt in the chair, struck from his grief stricken fugue state. Each time he glanced at the wasting figure in the bed, metaphorical heart fluttering in hope, but each time he was forced to come to terms with the fact that Arthur still wasn’t awake. 

 

Despite the reassurances from the medical staff that his injuries weren’t as bad as they seemed, Lewis was honestly starting to wonder if he ever  _ would _ be awake again. Hell, if he wasn’t looking close enough for the faint rise and fall of his chest, wasn’t clinging to a hand that occasionally twitched in his grasp, he could be easily convinced that Arthur was already gone, lost to the world forever. 

 

All because of  _ him.  _ Him and his  _ stupid mistake.  _

 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, faint words tumbling like pebbles from an illusory frown, “I’m so sorry Arthur.”

 

He gently lifted Arthur’s hand, carefully pressing his conjured lips against his bruised knuckles. “I’m so,” he choked, holding the calloused hand in both of his as he shuddered in grief and guilt, “I’m so sorry-!”

 

_ “Llllewis?” _

 

The ghost jolted, eyes darting to the side, expecting to see Vivi rubbing sleep out of her eyes, but...she remained asleep on the couch, twitching and scrunching up her face in response to an unseen specter of the dream world. 

 

_ “Llll...Lewis.” _

 

His anchor stilled as the realization hit him, and at the same time the cool digits trapped between his own bony fingers twitched. Lewis glanced back at the bed, blinking furiously to clear the pink-tinted distortion of new tears springing from the empty sockets. 

 

Under bruised, heavy lids, two foggy rings of amber met his own gaze. Arthur drew in a shaky, pained breath, one injured lung protesting the exertion, but he still managed to force an exhausted smile as he wheezed. 

 

_ “I...I found you, Lew.” _

 

Lewis stared at him like a damned soul finding salvation, and managed a weak, relieved chuckle as he reached out to brush away a stray tear that had slipped out onto Arthur’s cheek. “Y-yeah Arthur. You did it. You found me.”

 

Arthur leaned into the touch with a contented sigh, and both men flinched a bit at the sudden stunned inhale from behind Lewis. Vivi sat up so fast she almost knocked a startled Mystery off the couch, and she blinked behind her pink lenses, trying to confirm what she was seeing. “Arthur?”

 

The mechanic smiled, and tilted his head lightly in Lewis’s direction.  _ “H-hey Vivi, look...I found him.” _

 

With a loud, delighted sob of laughter, Vivi scrambled off the couch, hurrying to Arthur’s bedside and throwing her arms around his shoulder. He winced a little at the impact, but sank into the embrace as she buried her face into his neck, laughing and crying and shaking as she held him. He carefully turned his head as she tilted up to press frenzied, ecstatic kisses against his cheek, managing a weak laugh until he found himself suddenly face to face with-

 

_ “L-Lewis?” _

 

The ghost was smiling through his tears, only inches away from Arthur’s face, and slowly leaned in to press his own gentle kiss against the smaller man’s forehead. Arthur let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and Lewis drew back to press their foreheads against each other, closing his eyes and letting his anchor fall into the same soft rhythm as Arthur’s heartbeat. 

 

_ “M-missed you, big guy.” _

 

“Yeah,” Lewis whispered, one hand still holding his own and the other reaching across to cup Vivi’s tearstained cheek, “I missed you too.”

 

The hospital bed shifted as Mystery hopped up to drape himself across Arthur’s legs and resume his rest, and before long, the others joined him, Vivi pulling a chair closer to wrap her arms around Arthur’s side as she fell asleep directly above the lullaby of his beating heart. Arthur’s fought to keep his eyes open, desperate to hold on to this quiet moment of togetherness after so many months of confusion and separation. 

 

_ “Lewis,” _ he choked out shakily, trembling as the ghost ran one bony hand through his mess of blonde locks. 

 

“Hey,” Lewis murmured in Arthur’s ear, “it’s alright. Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up. Promise.”

 

His words were like a spell, and Arthur’s battered frame went still almost immediately. With a soft sigh, he finally closed his eyes, weakly leaning against Lewis’s forehead as he drifted off. 

 

For the first time in months, the nightmares of a sickly green cave and violet flames kept their distance. 


End file.
